Summer Street Lights

A stand-alone story.

Aristella Mariano promised to herself that she would never take that bus back to her province after the incident happened a decade ago. But while planning to resign from her current work to move abroad, a phone call from her old neighbor dropped a bomb of a news that forced her to break that promise. In just one single journey ticket, she stepped foot on the land that holds nothing but dark past and baggage of memories she had been burying for years now. And that includes, Emilio Marcelo.

Yes, that Emilio Marcelo who was the grandson of her grandmother's best friend. That guy who she was forced to befriend but ended in an undecided-label relationship. That man who has never been a stranger to her, not even after 10 years of being apart after the bloodstained history they shared.

In just one phone call she should've missed intentionally, the unresolved past is now part of her present. But for a person who's a dedicated leaver, staying is the last option to choose when situations become unbearable. For someone like Stella, not even the love that sprouted under the summer street lights is enough reason to stay.

07/06/25 - 04/03/26
Published: 09/28/25